New Arrival

Etaera was finding it more and more difficult to focus on her reports the closer they got to Risa. Things had been rather uneventful during their journey thus far, which was good in a way. Unfortunately, it also meant things were rather boring. They'd made a few stops on the way, largely to meet up with transport vessels and exchange personnel and supplies. After Nimbus III, she had spoken with her senior staff and discussed several changes that were necessary to the crew. One such change had just arrived on the most recent transport: their new Chief Engineer.

Aoife Gallegos had come well-recommended by her previous superiors, and Etaera was eager to meet the newest member of her crew. She'd sent a message to Aoife asking the engineer to head to the ready room once she'd gotten settled, before perusing over the woman's personnel record once more.

After the shuttle landed and the ramp unloaded, Aoife stepped off the shuttle with a duffle bag over her shoulder and a wheeled crate in her left hand behind her. A yeoman waited for her at the bottom.

"Lieutenant Gallegos?"

Even though weary and tired from the long journey, she mustered a smile. "Yes. Lieutenant Eefa Gallegos," she pronounced her name to him. As she was about to hand him her orders, he stopped her.

"The Captain has requested you meet her in her ready room once you drop your things off in your quarters." He handed her a PADD with her quarters' location. "Welcome aboard, Sir."

She tucked the transfer orders into the pocket in her duffle and made way for the turbolift. She had spent the many days reviewing the personnel files and the blueprints to the Cerberus. Knowing and seeing were two different things.

She had enough time to dump her items and freshen up with a clean uniform and redoing her hair with a splash of water to her face. At least she was presentable. Aoife pressed the chime and held her hands behind her back with the transfer orders.

"Come in," Etaera called, standing up to walk over to her replicator. As the doors obediently parted, she looked over to where her new Chief Engineer was. "Can I get you anything?" Personally, caffeine was the first order of business for the Trill commander, and she wagered Aoife wanted something refreshing after a long journey.

The engineer walked through the doors to see the Captain at the replicator. "Lieutenant Aoife Gallegos, reporting for duty, Sir." She stood at attention as the doors swished closed. "Iced spice chai, if possible." She moved to a more relaxed at attention stance with the PADD now in front of her clasped in her hands.

"Good to have you aboard, Lieutenant, have a seat." Etaera made the requested order, then carried both drinks back over to her desk, where she handed the chai to Aoife. "How was your transport over?" Etaera asked as she took her own seat.

"Long and uneventful," Aoife replied taking a seat. She took the chai with a smile and handed over her transfer orders. "Thank you," she said as she took a refreshing sip of the ice cold drink. "Gave me time to get acquainted with the ship, the personnel records of my staff, and some of the senior staff. Plenty of reading, that's for sure. I'm looking forward to getting to work, though I know we are heading into shore leave now. Guess it gives me a nice quick vacation before our next mission."

"Yeah, and we have another twenty-something hours at warp for you to learn the peculiarities of our engines," Etaera teased. "Our last Chief was pretty meticulous, but you know how these older, slap dash sort of vessels can be."

"Excellent. I like someone who keeps good records. I'm one of those people. It helps with how fluid Starfleet is. Don't get me wrong, it's not as fluid as it was back during the war, it's still pretty dynamic." Aoife offered a smile. Most of the Senior staff were either too young to have served or had their own battle wounds and scars from those tumultuous years. "Anything in particular I need to know about the ship? You know how tribal knowledge goes..." it was true that most everything was documented in a log or report somewhere, but there was still inherent tribal knowledge rampant, especially in Engineering.

"Nothing concrete..." Etaera said, "I've heard some talk about seeing things in the engine room, but nothing that has ever showed up on any sort of scan or diagnostic. Spiders, I believe, were what they were saying. A few of the ensigns, though, so it may just be idle minds playing tricks on the young."

A perplexed look crossed the engineer's face. "Never thought I would hear of a pest problem of the eight legged kind... " she took a drink as she cleared her mind to the more important stuff at hand. "Nothing else that I need to be aware of that may not have been in the reports ship wise?"

"Not that I can think of. We had a full refit when we left Deep Space 4, and that was less than a month ago. So insofar as I know we shouldn't have any problems. We requested specialized computer cores, science equipment, and holoprojectors, I assume that was in the reports. And we have a runabout, which is atypical for a Centaur."

"Some, yes; like the runabout. I have some friends in R&D that might use us as a testing platform for some new technology. If that's the case, I will let you know. With having some time before arriving on Shore Leave, it'll give me the time needed to see the systems first hand and develop the necessary rapport with the clockworks." Aoife was no exception when it came down to the rapport between the engineer and the ship. She learned to listen to how the ship beat and which way it particularly liked to tick. "I am looking forward to getting to know the ship, and her crew."

"The ship.. well, it's not Sovereign, but she has a lot of character and a lot of flexibility as well. In fact, the same could be said for her crew." Etaera leaned back in her seat, taking a sip from her mug. "I think you'll like a lot of the members of the crew. Kende, obviously, you'll be working with a lot. He's been instrumental at getting a lot of the computer system upgrades taken care of. The crew inside Engineering is young, but they're all very bright and excited about their commission here."

Smiling, Aoife took a drink from the cold, refreshing drink as the Captain had mentioned the freshness and flexibility of the crew and ship. "Means they are willing to adapt as needed given the situation. I have had my fair share of immovable objects before - especially the ones that are nearing retirement in the 'I don't care what you know and if you are right, I'm right and that's the only way to go'." Aoife laughed lightly. "It's called tactful diplomacy as one of my previous CEOs called it." She also took noticed of the chief operations officer mention and knew now to make a special meet and greet with them to get a tour of the new upgraded computer core.

"We don't have as many intractable ones. And I don't wager we'll see any. With our mission it's important to be flexible and open to possibilities. But... you know Engineers can be a particular sort of of officer," Etaera smiled. "That's one thing I've never been yet. I've been flight control, Intelligence, a couple stints working science jobs. Maybe next go around I'll give that a whack."

"Truly, if I wasn't going to be an engineer, I was going to be a doctor. Me personally, it's all about the hard math behind it. Engineering is tangible; doctors is not. Being a doctor, what is wrong with one person isn't what is wrong with the next person with the same exact symptoms." She smiled wide. "I love what I do. Honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I recommend it if you like the math."

"Well, we'll see what happens next lifetime, I'm certain. Maybe a drastic change of pace is the best sort of thing for me." Realizing she'd trailed a bit off course, she returned to her typical line of questioning. "I don't want to keep you too long because I'm certain you're eager to get started on getting to know the place and the crew... is there anything else you wanted me to know, or do?"

"I think that's it, Commander," the blonde stated as she finished her drink and stood. "Oh, do you prefer Ma'am, Sir, or Commander?" She asked as it had been an after thought. She had served under many women who preferred rank or one variation over the other. Aoife preferred to ask that off the bat. Less room for error later on.

Etaera laughed, "I answer to both genders and any rank from Ensign to Admiral. And about 7 other names as well. It sticks with you, you know? So I'm not picky, whichever you prefer."

Aoife smiled before she replied. "Guess that makes it easy then. If there is nothing else, I shall head to Engineering and get checked in there," she replied, dropping the smile.

"Dismissed," Etaera said with a final smile.

The engineer stood at attention and walked out the door of the ready room, ready to sink her teeth into the engineering facilities.